How to grow garlic at home?

Many gardeners-gardeners are engaged in the cultivation of garlic in their adjoining plots. However, this can be done not only in open beds, but also at home. In the article we will figure out how you can grow garlic at home.

Pros and cons of growing

Few people know that garlic can be successfully grown at home on a balcony or windowsill. The main thing is to adhere to a number of basic rules regarding the procedure for planting popular culture in an apartment. For this purpose, it is not necessary to have special knowledge or rich experience.

Let’s highlight the main advantages of growing garlic at home.

• In such conditions, people can easily grow a high-quality and environmentally friendly product. Some thus make a profit by selling grown vegetables.
• If fragrant garlic is grown at home, then the owners will always have a source of essential vitamins.
• Growing garlic at home is very convenient, especially if a person does not have a summer cottage.
• The very agricultural technique of growing garlic at home is very simple and accessible to all users. Even those who have never encountered them will be able to understand all the features of such works.
• Garlic is often grown at home for fresh and healthy herbs. If all the work is carried out correctly, then it will be possible to harvest the “harvest” after 1 month.
• Caring for garlic grown at home is easy and simple.

Garlic is a very useful and popular vegetable, so it is often grown in apartments. Such procedures do not have serious drawbacks, however, a person must take into account that not everyone can eat garlic.

• It is not recommended to use it in diseases of the kidneys and liver, as well as in violations of the gastrointestinal tract.
• The vegetable in question should not be eaten with gastritis, anemia, and pancreatitis.
• Diseases of the genitourinary system are also a direct contraindication to the use of garlic.

As stated above, some people choose to grow garlic at home for sale. In this case, you may encounter a number of problems.

• In the early stages, it can be difficult to find a really good supplier of quality seeds.
• It can’t be done without spending. At a minimum, garlic will need a suitable fertilizer.
• If you plan to grow winter garlic, you will need sandy loamy soil.
• Marketing problems may arise if the yield is high and there are no regular customers.

Variety choice

In order to grow a fragrant vegetable at home, you first need to decide on the optimal varieties. In this case, you can give preference to absolutely any type of vegetable – both spring and winter. That is why it is advisable to plant the variety that was previously planted outside the house and arranged for the household with its taste characteristics. Of course, there are also such subspecies of winter garlic that have been tested by practitioners empirically. We are talking about the varieties “Sochi 56”, “Otradnensky” and “Kharkovsky”. The listed varieties of the popular fragrant vegetable bring the richest harvest during the winter days.

If a person planned to grow garlic exclusively for the growth of high-quality and tasty feathers, then he can safely choose summer spring subspecies.

Preparing for planting

Before proceeding directly to planting garlic for further home cultivation, it is very important to carry out a number of preparatory procedures. It is necessary to properly prepare both the container itself and the soil in which vegetables will grow.

Емкость

Before planting garlic, you need to correctly prepare the container chosen for it. The pot or other container should have drainage holes and be of sufficient volume. The dishes should be wide, and its depth should be at least 20 cm, so that the liquid during irrigation does not flow beyond the edges. The very structure of the tank is completely unimportant, as well as the material from which it is made. It all depends solely on the preferences of the person who planned to engage in the germination of garlic at home.

soil

It is very important to consider the characteristics of the soil in which garlic will grow. It must be suitable for this plant if a person wants to achieve a really good harvest. Ordinary soil collected in the garden is not suitable for planting at home. The land will require some preparation. For this purpose, based on one 10-liter bucket, the following is added:

• 1 part of the sand;
• 2 parts of humus;
• 0,5 l of wood ash (it should not contain any impurities).

When a suitable substrate for planting garlic is prepared, they are engaged in mandatory disinfection of the soil. To do this, it is sent to the oven for 30 minutes. If you do not want to prepare the soil yourself, you can purchase ready-made substrates in specialized stores. This may be a special universal type soil designed for growing home crops.

Methods

You can plant garlic in both soil and water. In both cases, germinating a fragrant vegetable will not be difficult. The main thing is to act carefully and gradually.

in the ground

Let’s find out how to properly plant garlic in a tank filled with soil.

• The container should be initially filled with a suitable soil mixture. It needs to be slightly compacted and be sure to moisturize. You should not fall asleep too much earth – it should not spill over the edges of the pot. It is advisable to leave a place for convenient and unhindered watering and caring for the plant.
• Next, you need to divide the head of garlic into individual cloves.
• The cloves will need to be placed in the next stage in the ground that the pot is filled with. Each slice will need to be placed so that its sharp tip is pointing up. Some try, on the contrary, to further deepen the teeth, as when planting in open ground. This method affects only the germination time – the first shoots will hatch after a week by 2.
• Next, the garlic cloves will need to be sprinkled with earth, and then watered. It is advisable to water the soil with a spray bottle so that the liquid does not lift the teeth up.
• After that, the container can be safely put in a sunny place in the house.

Often, garlic is planted with houseplants in one pot. A similar method turns out to be relevant if you need to protect ornamental plants from attacks by various pests.

In water

The distillation of garlic greens can also be carried out in water. To do this, the head of garlic is divided into cloves. The latter are peeled, and then smoothly placed in a dish of shallow depth. After that, the selected container is half filled with water. This fluid level must be maintained at all times. This technique makes it possible to obtain a crop twice. The first fruits can be obtained after 3 weeks, and then again after 14 days.

If initially large-sized teeth are planted, then it is quite possible to wait for the third wave of greenery after another 10 days. After that, the material for the planned landing needs to be changed. Against the background of a normal planting in the ground, garlic sprouts break through in about 1-3 weeks. The timing when the vegetable begins to germinate depends on the parameters of the planting depth of the cloves, as well as the conditions in which the crop grows.

Care

If a person wants to successfully grow tasty and fragrant garlic at home, then he needs to ensure the proper care of the seedlings. Let’s get acquainted with the most important points regarding care procedures.

• The plant must necessarily grow in conditions of sufficient illumination. It could be direct sunlight. If there is a lack of light, then the use of fluorescent lamps can be resorted to to guarantee the plantings 8 hours of total illumination.
• Proper watering of crops at home is also important. Water garlic preferably 1 time in 2-3 days. During the specified time period, the earth will have time to dry out, and the roots will not rot from excess moisture in the substrate.
• Be sure to feed the garlic with suitable types of fertilizers at the appropriate times, for example, in the spring. Additives must be environmentally friendly. Mullein or bird droppings will do. If there are no such components, then ready-made purchased dressings can be used.
• If desired and necessary, it is possible to adjust the development of growing garlic. To get larger heads, you need to regularly trim the greens, especially the arrows. If, on the contrary, you need to get more greenery, then you don’t need to touch anything.

Diseases and pests

In most cases, the poor quality of the soil or the planting material itself leads to certain garlic diseases. The same reasons often negatively affect plants in the open field. More experienced gardeners immediately understand that the plant is “sick” if they notice yellowing or excessive softening of the feathers. Usually such troubles arise due to:

• incorrectly formulated or incorrectly selected soil mixture for garlic;
• infectious lesions that have been preserved on the peel of garlic cloves;
• the spread of diseases from other plantings in the immediate vicinity.

There are several dangerous pests that can harm homemade garlic.

• Nematode. This is the name of small worms, the length of which is only 1 mm. They live on cloves, sucking the juice out of them. As a result, the bottom cracks, the roots die off, and the feather dries up. Because of this, the plant eventually dies.
• Onion fly. Outwardly, this insect is difficult to distinguish from an ordinary fly, but it is smaller. The length of her body is usually 6-8 mm. If this pest attacks, then the tops of the feathers turn yellow, the plant becomes more lethargic, as if in need of watering.

Garlic is often affected by dangerous onion mites, thrips and many other pests. The infected plant does not have enough strength for further growth, it begins to wither, small and deformed heads grow. A similar effect is produced by fungal diseases that affect the culture.

Useful Tips

Here are some helpful tips for growing garlic at home.

• If the plant has undergone serious viral diseases, then it is useless to treat it. In this case, it must be removed from the pot, and then be sure to destroy it.
• It is necessary to properly care for the soil in which the vegetable grows. It must be periodically loosened, especially after watering. Any weed grass must be removed if the soil was taken from the site.
• Flower arrows need to be cut off. This is necessary, because because of the arrows, the plant wastes its strength on the maturation of seeds.
• It is very important to cut the leaves of garlic grown at home. As soon as the leaf blades reach 15-20 cm in length, they can be eaten. In order to increase the period of forcing greens, it is required to cut off the extreme feathers – then new ones will grow from the middle.
• If plants are grown on a windowsill, near which heating devices are placed, it is necessary to protect them from overheating. Temperatures that are too high can dry out the hands and reduce the quality of the nibs.
• If it is planned to use garden soil taken from the street for home cultivation of garlic, then it must first be carefully examined. There should be no debris in the soil, fragments. It should be calcined in the oven in advance.

It is very important to choose the right tank for growing garlic. Before planting the plant, the selected container must be thoroughly washed with potassium permanganate, and then dried thoroughly.